Smart T-shirts

My first thought was, 'Oh Brother!' Then I looked at the other photo of the mobile app, and thought of the 'Hello It's me!' scam sometimes reported on the news. Then I wondered about the cost of the printer, and maybe the cost of the app. Then I thought of the English teaching applications. Last I thought of all the 'funny' English we could collect, copyright, make money from, enough to purchase the printer, just in time for some other marketing strategy to take over.

Then I wondered if I am just getting old, or does everyone else looking at JT think like I do?

Okay, the graphic designer in me thinks this is cool. The potential is as unlimited as people's imagination. Great idea Uniqlo!

saw this on the news yesterday morning, and it seems like a totally cool concept! can't wait to try it out.

Kudos for democratising T-shirt design, Uniqlo!

Pretty cool idea from UNIQLO! I'll definitely have a go at one of the t-shirts.

Will it work on non-white T-shirts? And will all colors look proper on non-white shirts? Then it's cool, otherwise: meh.

2000 yen for a tshirt with your own design. hmmm ill give it a try .

Yay, Engrish on demand!

follow in the steps of Coca Cola and lets all print our names so people can stalk us.

I have a Brother printer. My son calls it "Oniichan."

I don´t get it. So we can make designs, ok. But who prints the actual T-Shirt? Are we supposed to buy special printer, or are those designs ordered from Uniklo? Article does not say.

WilliB,

Look at that printer. That is not for home use. You download the app, pick up your stuff in a store.

Uniqlo is the new Sony, I tell you. They go their own way, and keep developing their business to fit customers' needs. All the best.

Clever, lots of people will try it and of course most will buy something else when in the store to pick up their creation, i.e.: "Expert Hugs - ¥500". "I'm exciting", "I heart TEPCO"

Cool idea, and it helps people express themselves.

Q: But who prints the actual T-Shirt? Are we supposed to buy special printer, or are those designs ordered from Uniklo? Article does not say.

A: The T-shirt order is placed through the app and delivered to your home. T-shirts are priced at ¥1,990

The article did say.

Heck, Fuji Xerox was doing this almost 20 years ago. But you needed a PC because there was no such thing as a smart phone....

This printer is somewhere between 20 000$ and 25 000$. It depends if it has 2 or 4 white cartridges with the usual CMYK.

Brother has a ROI calculator on their website. On average, it's 0.24$ in ink, 0.02$ in maintenance and 0.38$ for the labor cost. I doubt Uniqlo pays more than 1$ for a blank T-shirt, so they should make ¥1,800 profit on each T. Not bad.